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Ross Noble

Started by 20footcockandballs, August 19, 2004, 06:32:28 PM

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20footcockandballs

I saw him in Glasgow on Sunday night.  One of the funniest stand ups I've ever seen.  Hardly stuck to script and instead built up most of his gags/commentary based on info gathered from picking on a few people in the audience at the start.  He went off on bizarre tangents and had around 5 main themes intertwining at any one time.  His memory recall was astounding.

If you went on tour with him you would experience a different show every night.  Well worth checking out if you get the chance.

PS: I used to be a rather infrequent poster on here as Jez North.  Just dropping by because I wanted to post on the 'Morris taken things too far' thread.  I'm afraid I will have to remain infrequent though...

NattyDread

I was thinking about checking him out at the festival. I did hear the show lasts for over 2 hours! There better be an interval.

20footcockandballs

Quote from: "NattyDread"I was thinking about checking him out at the festival. I did hear the show lasts for over 2 hours! There better be an interval.
15 minutes interval but it did last over 2 hours.  He came on for encore and told a few more jokes then went into a question and answer session with the audience.  Basically you could ask him anything which was good because it added to the adhoc nature of his show.  The man was thinking on his feet at at an amazing rate.  Funniest question was "What is your favourite dinosaur?".

Oh, and don't sit in the front row, leave your mobile on, let him spot you going to the toilet, or sneeze.  Otherwise he is likely to pick on you.  He ripped the piss incessantly out of some couple at the front throughout.  He was a plumber she was a psychiatric nurse, so he used the phrase "nutjob" quite a lot!  Funnily enough I think this couple were genuinely a bit brassed off with it all as well.

leelo

Went to see him last night in Cheltenham.  I was hoping it would be at least slightly funny, but it wasn't.  I honestly never thought I'd actually be bored watching a stand up.

His act, if you're interested, seemed to be exactly the same as it was last year going by the comments above.  For the first hour leading up to the intermission he spent most of his time taking the piss out of some woman who had her bag on her lap.  The rest if it was a barrage of "I'm wacky me" surreal stuff and TWO FUCKING JOKES.

Don't get me wrong, I do find surreal comedy funny if it's done right, but this was the most tedious uninspired cack I've ever had to sit through.

We never did see what he was like after the intermission because we went home to get pissed and watch Blackadder on UK Gold.  

If you were there last night, we were the 4 empty seats in row ZZ.

Chers penis

Saw him three years ago, fantastic! saw him two consecutive nights last year and i can see how he gives the impression of his improvising, it's so clever and innovative and i can't think of a bad word to say about the bloke.

Bert Thung

Quote from: "20footcockandballs"Hardly stuck to script

That might be because it wasn't very good

Chers penis

Quote20footcockandballs wrote:
Hardly stuck to script  


That might be because it wasn't very good

I have seen Ross noble two nights on a tour and he does do 75% of the same show almost every night. It's a myth that he makes  all his shows up on the spot. That's impossible. He's just very clever at making it look like he does.

A Passing Turk Slipper

I saw him live a while back and thought he was pretty poor. Yeah, there were a few gigglesome moments and it was quite a nice atmosphere in the small theatre I saw him at but after so long he just becomes really tiresome with all the obvious 'badger' and 'wizard' wankery. He'll start telling a story, and he'll say something slightly wrong and go 'oh, not literally of course, can you imagine it, oh that would be great, a mouse parade' or some shite and go on for an age about some standard whimsy subject (Gollum, various animals etc) without the charm or wit that Hill or Bailey have. He definitely has his moments, and I quite enjoyed his 'Goes Global' radio show a while back, it's just that his act seems so empty. The perfect stand up for me is Kitson, he actually makes you think about stuff at the same time as being the most natural comic I've ever listened to.

20footcockandballs

Quote from: "A Passing Turk Slipper"I saw him live a while back and thought he was pretty poor. Yeah, there were a few gigglesome moments and it was quite a nice atmosphere in the small theatre I saw him at but after so long he just becomes really tiresome with all the obvious 'badger' and 'wizard' wankery. He'll start telling a story, and he'll say something slightly wrong and go 'oh, not literally of course, can you imagine it, oh that would be great, a mouse parade' or some shite and go on for an age about some standard whimsy subject (Gollum, various animals etc) without the charm or wit that Hill or Bailey have. He definitely has his moments, and I quite enjoyed his 'Goes Global' radio show a while back, it's just that his act seems so empty. The perfect stand up for me is Kitson, he actually makes you think about stuff at the same time as being the most natural comic I've ever listened to.
Bailey is top jockey but Hill better than Noble?  Not on my planet.

Bert Thung

I don't see what's so admirable about moving away from a script if that script isn't up to much. Harry Hill has a better script, that's why he's better than Ross Noble.

Mr. Analytical

I have to agree.  I can't stand Noble... I find his material sub-par and unfunny.  I saw that video he did recently and was amazed that this guy is famous... that bit about the drunk and the Hari Krishnas goes on for about half an hour and simply isn't funny.

debut

Noble ls in my not funny list along with Izzard & Dee. Lots of comedy fans like these three. Slagging off Izzard is like slagging off The Beatles. I don't care how clever his act may be , the man, like Noble, doesn't make me laugh.

klaatu!

I don't mind Ross Noble. His stuff is very hit and miss, but  I take issue with this thing called 'monkey whimsy'. After all, many people use smatterings of so-called 'monkey whimsy' in their material - Noble, Izzard, Hill, Bailey, Reeves and Mortimer, even Paul Merton - but they all have incredibly varied acts. The difference is definitely in delivery: Noble tends to deliver his material in a 'whimsical and proud of it' manner, whereas Bailey and, to a certain extent, Izzard always seemed to be bewildered/intrigued about what they're talking about, and Merton delivered his 'monkey whimsy' deadpan with world-weariness. Is it being knowingly whimsical and being proud of it that people have a problem with?

Identity Crisis Ahoy!

I hate that 'wacky' bastard.

Maximash

Caught a bit of one of his performances on TV, E4 I think, and was gobsmacked at the low quality. It reminded me of Gervais' Politics, whereby something mindshatteringly unfunny is dragged out with "Well, not LITERALLY!!"-style shit. Appalling.

thewomb

Truly, truly terrible on every level.

Morgan


Ambient Sheep

I've only ever seen him on HIGNFY, and he never fails to completely ruin it.

(DISCLAIMER: I haven't seen this week's yet.)

Muggins

In the interest of evening out this thread a bit-I reckon he is ace.  In certain situations.  His radio 4 series 'Ross Noble Goes Global' is very very funny.  He had already done a fair few years graft on the comedy circuit before he hit it big.  I do think that he suffers when watching him on TV or video, because you don't feel as much a connection with the audience that he riffs off.  He also suffers a bit from overexposure and other less good surrealist comics jumping on the bandwagon and weighing it down somewhat, making the whole genre at times seem much more sluggish than it once was.  I've seen him twice on the same tour as well, and found about 80% of his act to be different on the two nights.  

I agree with the 'monkey whimsy' comments- that's the problem with surrealist humour is that you've got to keep the audience confused and inspired by going for different boundaries- I mean, the fun's in imagining how the ideas would look- once you've imagined a monkey riding a bike and juggling you need to move to a different topic.  I think Izzard has the same kind of problem now, having bought Sexie for £3 and then watching it and trying to work out if this was the same man who had made me fall off my chair with laughter a decade previously.

Jemble Fred

His stand-up's never done it for me, but he's never ruined Just A Minute. He's up there with Graham Norton as the two comics who suck on TV, but always go down brilliantly on JAM.

Chers penis

QuoteI think Izzard has the same kind of problem now, having bought Sexie for £3 and then watching it and trying to work out if this was the same man who had made me fall off my chair with laughter a decade previously.

For me izzard lost it after D2K even in that he's not good, Sexie was one of the few comedy shows i have watched where i have never laughed once all the way through, i barely cracked a smile. Izzard needs to learn that the word Jam is only funny for a certain amount of time.

Ambient Sheep

Quote from: "Jemble Fred"His stand-up's never done it for me, but he's never ruined Just A Minute. He's up there with Graham Norton as the two comics who suck on TV, but always go down brilliantly on JAM.
I'll give you that.  When I first heard a J.A.M. in which Nicolas Parsons announced him, my heart sank in my boots...but he was surprisingly good on that.  Still not quite convinced about Norton on there though, but even so he too is better than one might expect.

Chers penis

One thing i'll say for him is the effort he puts into his dvd extra features, his new dvd features commentary and commentary of the commentary plus commentary with cantonese translator, and a spot the celebrity face in the muffin game.

Little Hoover

Yeah I bought his latest DVD just to hear his commentary on commentary.

well I don't have much going on in my life, but I'm looking for work.

Chers penis

QuoteYeah I bought his latest DVD just to hear his commentary on commentary.

well I don't have much going on in my life, but I'm looking for work.

still haven't got round to mine yet, i've always found listening to commentary on a stand up show slightly odd, in fact most commentaries are not great but occasionally you get one that actually makes the film/show your'e watching a lot more interesting.

Little Hoover

Well their not very good, I certainly could'nt have got through them in one sitting.

LordSnooty

You can imagine the hordes of bland idiots now... "heheh, that's a good gag, a commentary on a commentary... no, I'm not actually listening to it, that would be saaaad!"

lankinpark

Quote from: "Jemble Fred"His stand-up's never done it for me, but he's never ruined Just A Minute. He's up there with Graham Norton as the two comics who suck on TV, but always go down brilliantly on JAM.

I thought he was pretty great on the Edinburgh ISIHAC too. Bad in his earlier appearances, but this time he nailed it.

I was there at the aforementioned Cheltenham gig.  I thought he was great.

The second half was stronger than the first (more actual/planned content).  Effectively he had around three joke-ideas spread over two hours.  Although I got really tired of the "plums" humour after a while, it was pretty impressive how he managed to seemingly make-up funnies without much prepared material.  I don't know whether the 2/3 people in the audience were plants to spring-board his routines.  If they were for real then it's amazing to think on your toes like that.  (I'm not talking about your toes).

phantom_power

Quote from: "LordSnooty"You can imagine the hordes of bland idiots now... "heheh, that's a good gag, a commentary on a commentary... no, I'm not actually listening to it, that would be saaaad!"

well it is undoubtedly a better as a joke than something to actually listen to